Saturday, September 4, 2010

Word Origins

Herb told me the origins of a common phrase in our household, ZEEZER CHONKING, which doesn't seem to have any alternative in common usage--at least nothing quite so descriptive.

When Herb was a boy, his friend Bob Wallace had a short nosed dog named Queenie, and Herb had Angel, a samoyed. One day when Bob was over, Angel was biting at fleas and Bob said, "She's chonking." Herb said, "No she's not, she's zeezering." Queenie chonked because she had a short muzzle more inclined to "chonk, chonk, chonk", and Angel zeezered because she had a longer muzzle that went "zeezerzeezerzeezer." Thus, the words were combined to describe the act of a dog zeezering or chonking with their teeth to get after fleas.